Note: Our endorsements reflect the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s values and concerns for our community. The newsroom does not participate in editorial board decisions.

For voters, some choices at the ballot box are difficult, while others are incredibly easy.

Two of the easiest decisions are in Pembroke Pines. Two incumbents have earned new four-year terms, and their challengers have little or no visible support. They also declined to be interviewed or to complete a basic Sun Sentinel questionnaire.

Voters in District 1 should re-elect Tom Good to a third term on March 10.

Low-key and detail-oriented, he focuses on less glamorous local government work such as traffic control, solid waste management and a need for a new police headquarters. He has been a city administrator in Cooper City and Deerfield Beach.

When the city asked voters last year to pass a $230 million bond issue for a police station, parks and other needs, Good sought to persuade his colleagues to move cautiously and split the package into a series of questions. Instead, it went to voters as one big package and failed miserably.

“I think it was just too much,” Good said. The commissioner said in a Sun Sentinel questionnaire that, on Election Day, he did not vote for or against it.

Little-known challengers

Good’s opponents are Jim Henry, a retired city police sergeant, and Dennis Hinds, an insurance agent who has run for office at least three times, twice in Miramar and once for the state House, where in 2020 he got less than 10% of the vote.

Neither Henry nor Hinds completed our issues questionnaire and Hinds said he is busy caring for an ailing uncle.

Good, a commissioner for nearly eight years, said he has never seen Henry nor Hinds at a city meeting.

“No, sir. Not one,” Good said.

In our view, any candidate who can’t find the time to answer a dozen questions surely won’t have time to read a meeting agenda hundreds of pages long. The only choice here is the incumbent, Tom Good.

District 4

In District 4, Mike Hernández is also the obvious choice for a full four-year term. Appointed to fill a vacancy in 2024, he won a two-year term that November and now seeks a full four years.

Pembroke Pines has four separate city commission districts. Only the mayor is elected city-wide.

Engaging and opinionated, Hernández is a public relations specialist who worked as a top-level aide to former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez.

Hernández opposes extending no-bid contracts without competition for decades — as the city did with management of its municipal golf course. He publicly criticized a Florida Power & Light rate hike. He has prodded Broward Schools Superintendent Howard Hepburn to improve outreach and communication with cities as schools consolidate or close.

He turned in his city-issued ceremonial badge, the kind that caused a big problem last year for Pines Commissioner Jay Schwartz when he had a tense verbal encounter with three Flanagan High School students.

Hernández’s sole challenger, Elizabeth “Liz” Burns, is making her fourth try for a city office. She did not respond to interview requests. Burns got 23% of the vote in a four-person election Hernandez won in 2024 with 48% of the vote.

The Charlie Dodge Era

With a population of about 171,000, Pembroke Pines is Broward’s second most populous city, after Fort Lauderdale. Located in the county’s southwest quadrant, it’s a residential community of rapidly changing demographics with an increasingly diverse and young population.

Nearly half of city residents are Hispanic or Latino and 22% of the population is Black, the city website says. After decades of growth that began after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, “the Pines” is now largely built out, and two elementary schools are being forced to close because of a steep decline in student enrollment.

What hasn’t changed in a very long time in the city is its day-to-day leadership.

Charlie Dodge has been city manager for 37 years — an astounding stretch of time in a profession where managers frequently resign or are fired after five or six years.

At 78, Dodge is still there, but Good and Hernández agreed that the time has come for the city to develop a succession plan in preparation for Dodge’s departure.

“We have to plan for the future,” Hernández said. “There will be a post-Charlie Dodge era in Pembroke Pines.”

Pines commissioners are paid $33,161 a year, and receive an annual expense allowance of $13,062 and a yearly car allowance of $7,920.

Good and Hernández take their responsibilities seriously. Voters should keep them in office.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/02/13/keep-good-hernandez-in-pembroke-pines-endorsement/